Broadening identities for diverse youth in STEM through socioenvironmental problem solving

该项目将推动学生和教师创新技术体验（ITEST）计划的努力，以更好地理解和促进提高学生的动机和能力的做法，通过参与实践现场经验，追求科学，技术，工程或数学（STEM）领域的职业生涯，实验室/项目为基础的创业任务和指导经验。这个项目在北卡罗来纳州大学解决STEM的访问，机会，和身份差距的不同中学青年和他们的老师。 项目活动整合了科学，工程和计算，以解决多方面的社会环境问题，具有本地和全球意义，并有助于个人有意义和真实的学科STEM参与。假设是，这种综合方法将加强青年与STEM相关的身份，拓宽他们的STEM学术和职业道路，为有意义的STEM融合提供模式，并促进教师的学习。该项目将从北卡罗来纳州的两个农村学区（兰多夫县学区和罗金厄姆县学区）招募60名中学生。这些地区将与三所中学合作，为多样化和社会经济弱势的学生群体提供服务。该项目包括一个研究部分，以研究青年人与STEM相关的身份，这将：（1）确定触发和维持STEM身份工作的计划特征;（2）通过确定非正式STEM教育的长期身份相关成果来填补文献中的持久空白;（3）提供最新的，经过测试的学科身份模型。该项目有助于实现一个长期目标，即改善北卡罗来纳州皮埃蒙特的STEM学习基础设施，使历史上被剥夺了丰富STEM教育的年轻人能够获得并继续走上与STEM相关的个人关系、学术成功和职业机会的道路。该项目的目标是：（1）创建、制定和完善教学模式，通过科学、工程和计算让中学生参与社会环境问题;（2）研究该模型在触发和维持青年STEM相关身份和途径方面的有效性;（3）测试更新的学科身份模型;（4）研究教师STEM专业学习计划的有效性。该项目包括以下主要干预战略：（a）为期两周的住宿暑期研究所，重点是通过科学、工程和计算机研究获得清洁水的问题。近同行的导师，干专业人士，本科生和毕业生在干领域，和干职业顾问有助于SI。参加者包括来自伙伴学校的60名青年和6名教师;（B）星期六学院侧重于结合工程设计和计算的环境问题。评价计划包括全面的形成性（过程）和总结性（成果）组成部分。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivations and capacities to pursue careers in fields of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) by engaging in hands-on field experience, laboratory/project-based entrepreneurship tasks and mentorship experiences.This project at the University of North Carolina addresses STEM access, opportunity, and identity gaps for diverse middle school youth and their teachers. The project activities integrate science, engineering, and computing to address socio-environmental problems that are multifaceted, have local and global significance, and lend themselves to personally meaningful and authentic disciplinary STEM engagement. The hypothesis is that this integrated approach will strengthen youth's STEM-linked identities, broaden their STEM academic and career pathways, provide a model for meaningful STEM integration, and nurture teachers' learning. The project will recruit 60 middle school students from two rural school districts in North Carolina (Randolph County School district and Rockingham County School district). These districts will partner with three middle schools that serve diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations. The project includes a research component to study youths' STEM-linked identities, which will: (1) identify features of the program that trigger and sustain STEM identity work; (2) fill an enduring gap in the literature by identifying long-term, identity-related outcomes of informal STEM education; and (3) provide an updated, tested model of disciplinary identity. This project contributes to a long-term goal to improve the STEM learning infrastructure in the North Carolina Piedmont so youths who have historically been denied an enriching STEM education can access and remain on pathways that lead to STEM-related personal affiliation, academic success, and career opportunities.The project objectives are: (1) create, enact, and refine a pedagogical model that engages middle school youth with socioenvironmental problems through science, engineering, and computing; (2) study the effectiveness of the model in triggering and sustaining youth's STEM-linked identities and pathways; (3) test an updated model of disciplinary identity; (4) study the effectiveness of the program for teachers' STEM professional learning. The project includes the following primary intervention strategies: (a) a two-week residential Summer Institute (SI) focuses on the problem of access to clean water, examined through science, engineering, and computing. Near-peer mentors, STEM professionals, undergraduates and graduates in STEM fields, and a STEM career counselor contribute to the SI. Participants include 60 youth and six teachers from partner schools; (b) Saturday Academies (SAs) focus on environmental problems integrating engineering design and computing. The evaluation plan includes comprehensive formative (process) and summative (outcome) components.